Significant of Bt Maize to enhance yield
Pakistan is largely based on agriculture; it contributes
about 25% to the national economy, provides employment
for over 50% of the labour force and is main source of
income generation in rural areas. During last four years
2002-06, average annual growth in agriculture sector has
been frustrating due to low production of the main
crops.

In most of developing countries farmers have always
sought ways to increase crop productivity, quality, and
sustain reliability through out the year; nearly all
farming in the developing world remains small scale and
labor intensive and employs a much greater proportion of
the population as a result of it there is less reliable
productivity and growth; on the other hand agriculture
has become more mechanized and less labor intensive with
few people engaged in food production in many advance
countries due to adoption of up-to-the-minute
technology; they have successfully maintain sustainable
development and are more certain about their food and
energy security.

Green
revolution in the 20th century did not harness Pakistan
and the average yields of crops are still low as
compared to other countries- the yield of major crops is
still 30-50 per cent below the demonstrated potential -
the gap between actual and potential yield of rice is 50
per cent, wheat 40 per cent, sugarcane 35 per cent and
maize 30 per cent. Moreover the burgeoning population
having already crossed the 160 millions mark, so
elevation of food insecurity and poverty continue to be
the main concern of the country. On current trends in
population and food production there is likely to be a
large gap between production and demand by 2025.

The main factor which contribute the low yield of crops
includes, less water for irrigation, high cost of
inputs, poor quality seed, conventional sowing method,
low level of farm mechanization; high pest infestation
and hopeless weed management in practice.

The goals of farmers, government institutes everywhere
remain the same how to increase agriculture out put,
reduce hunger and poverty with environmental friendly
technologies; there is no single solution which is
likely to solve our growing problem in agriculture,
food, energy, health and environment however tools of
agricultural biotechnology are being adopted in many
countries to address these issues. It is worth
mentioning today around 45 million people in Pakistan
has not enough income to purchase the food they need for
healthy life and about one third of the population is
malnourished; improvement in agriculture will not only
help country’s economic growth but also benefit a large
segment of the population.

In Pakistan maize is third important cereal after wheat
and rice; while it ranks third most grown crop in the
world with an area of more than 365 million acres with
an annual production of about 750 million metric tones;
Asia grows 30% of the global area with China itself
growing 74 million acres, plus significant production in
India 24 million acres, Indonesia 12.5 million acres,
Philippines 9.5 million acres, Thailand 6.5 million
acres and Vietnam 2.8 million acres. In Pakistan the
area under maize is over 2.4 million acres and
production 3.25 million metric tons. Punjab and NWFP
contribute 40 per cent, 58 per cent of the total area
under maize respectively while around 2 percent of the
total area under maize is contributed by Sindh and
Balochistan; 30% of total production is contributed by
Punjab while 60% by NWFP. Maize is an important crop of
AJK with about 0.25 million acres of maize being
planted.

Maize crop has a variety of uses it is grown basically
for grains and is at the same time a popular fodder for
livestock, its grain is a rich source of starch,
protein, edible oil is extracted from maize seeds,
biofuel like ethanol, biodiesel are being obtained from
maize in many parts of the world and it has many
applications in food and Pharmaceutical industry.

Maize stem borer is major insect problem in Pakistan,
which on the average reduces the yield by about 20-40%;
similarly weeds in maize crops reduce yield by 30-45 per
cent or even more. Many farmers perceive that
insecticides have limited effectiveness on stem borer
larvae on the surface of maize plants at the time of
spraying but are less effective against larvae that have
bored into stalks. Furthermore egg laying can occur over
a three week period and most insecticides are only
effective for 7 to 10 days; as result the cost per
treatment is turned very high relative to perceived
usefulness. It is worth mentioning that since the
adoption of hybrid maize varieties the production
capacity per acre has increased significantly which is
more than 5 tones grains per acre as compare with 1.5
tones per acres with conventional maize varieties.

Plant biotechnologists claim that this problem can be
solved by the adoption of Bt Maize or genetically
modified (GM) maize; which is genetically enhanced by
inserting Cry1Ab gene from naturally occurring soil
bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) into the genetic
makeup of the corn plant, this genetically improved
maize produces the a toxic protein which has the ability
to control certain maize borers and a few maize
rootworms. GM maize plant does not need to be sprayed as
compare to conventional maize varieties so the risk to
the environment is minimal as well as it reduces number
of pesticides application however opponent argue that
the way the crop is grown in some countries may lead to
insects becoming resistant to the GM plant. Similarly GM
maize with herbicide tolerant gene has the inbuilt
mechanism against the application of non selective
herbicide; Glyphosate, is consider the most important
herbicide around the world. Since transgenic,
glyphosate-resistant crops were introduced in 1996;
adoption of this technology especially in the U.S. and
South America has been increased dramatically.

Today out of 365.7 millions acres of total global maize
grown area; Bt maize have been cultivated on 62.2
millions of acres representing 17% of global transgenic;
Bt maize has been approved to grow commercially across
nine countries the United States, Argentina, Canada,
South Africa, Spain, the Philippines, Uruguay, Honduras
and Germany. The Philippines was the first country in
Asia to commercially introduce the cultivation of Bt
maize in 2003. France resumed the planting of Bt maize
in 2005 after a four-year gap having planted Bt maize in
1998; because members of French Maize Growers
Association expressed their open support for
biotechnology, this year 54,362 acres of area; which is
1.5 percent of France's cultivated maize land - have
been sown with GM maize however farmers have urged
greater use of GMO crops to boost yields. The underlying
concern expressed by the maize growers fear that France
would lagging behind in biotech crops when countries
like China and India were embracing the technology to
their advantage.

More recently French President Nicolas Sarkozy said no
GM crops would be planted in France until the government
had received the results of an evaluation by a new
authority on GMOs set to be launched this year on the
other hand European Agriculture Commissioner said a full
ban on GMO crops would clearly go against the rules and
that France would lose in court if it implemented such a
ban. Today seven countries in EU are plantings of Bt
maize; according to reports the crops have been
delivering income gains to the farmers planting the
crops, health benefits for the human and livestock
consumers from improved grain quality and environmental
gains associated with lower insecticide use.

However many claim that ecological effects of Bt maize
on non-target need to be monitor and evaluate; as a
precautionary in many countries Bt maize must be
cultivated alongside so called “refuges” of conventional
varieties - a strategy aimed at preventing the insects
from becoming resistant to Bt.

According to a PG Economics study “The benefits of
adopting genetically modified, insect resistant (Bt)
maize in the EU: first results from 1998-2006
plantings”. The result shows that:

1. In maize growing regions affected by European Corn
Borer (ECB) and Maize Stem Borer (MSB), the main impact
of growing Bt maize has been higher yields compared to
conventional non-GM maize. Average yield benefits have
often been over 10% and sometimes higher;
2. In 2006, users of Bt maize have, on average, earned
additional income levels of between Rs. 2,183 and Rs.
4,736 per acre. This is equal to an improvement in
profitability of 12 to 20%;
3. In certain regions, Bt maize has delivered important
improvements in grain quality through significant
reductions in the levels of mycotoxins found in the
grain. This delivers a health benefit to the livestock
sector that mostly consumes the maize;
4. Where farmers have previously used insecticides to
control ECB and MSB, adoption of Bt technology has
delivered environmental gains from less insecticide use
and reduced use of fuel. Reduced fuel use is
contributing to lowering carbon emissions.

At present herbicide and insect-resistant maize are
permitted for food use and traded on the international
food and feed markets; under certain biosafety
regulatory framework. However oil extracted from Bt
maize grains can be marketed in any country as there is
no Bt protein in refined edible oils. Bt protein is
separated out in the oil extraction and refining process
as oil consists of fatty acids.

Since 1996, when the first commercial GM crops were
grown, the global GM crop area has unprecedented
increase- reflecting grower satisfaction due to the
significant and multiple benefits of GM crops; which
include - more sustainable and resource efficient crop
management practices that require less fuel, conserve
vital soil moisture and control erosion; less dependency
on pesticides. It is worth mentioning that there is not
a single scientific evidence of its negative impact on
environment and human health.

Subject of Mycotoxins in food / feed have received
considerable attention especially over the last three
decades around the globe - according to some reports Bt
maize contains on average 90 percent less cancer causing
mycotoxins than the non-GM maize varieties grown by
organic and traditional farmers. Because the fungi that
produce the mycotoxins, Fusarium molds, enter maize
plants primarily through holes produced by corn borers;
as every cell in Bt maize is equipped to fight corn
borers directly, corn borers that attack such plants are
quickly killed and do not replicate, which results in a
fewer Fusarium infections and reduced mycotoxin
production.

Despite the fact that Pakistan is overwhelmingly an
agrarian economy, it is unable to produce sufficient
edible oil for its domestic requirements therefore
substantial amount of foreign exchange is spent on the
import of soybeans, canola and palm oil. Our total
requirement of edible oil is estimated at 1.65 million
tons against the domestic production of various types of
edible oil; which is around 600 thousand tons annually
and, therefore, the shortfall of about 900 thousand tons
is met through imports. By venturing into biotech crops
like Bt maize, Bt soybean Bt Canola; Pakistan will be
able to deal with this issue as well.

Pakistan is experiencing skyrocketing prices of edible
oils, ghee and sugar since countries growing large area
under soybean, maize and sugarcane started programs to
convert these crops into biofuels due to increase in
crude oil price per barrel (US$ 80 plus) in the
international market; as a result of high demand the
price of these crops have jumped many times. More
recently a senior United Nations expert has condemned
the growing use of crops to produce just “biofuels” as a
replacement for petrol as a crime against humanity
because it push the price of some food crops to record
levels.

In order to save an average outflow of foreign exchange
of about $900 million on account of import of edible oil
and food & energy security, there is a strong need to
accelerate efforts in the agriculture sector to steadily
increase the local production of oil seeds by the use of
GM crops.

Fortunately Pakistan has state of the art research
institutes like National Institute for Biotechnology and
Genetic Engineering (NIBGE), Nuclear Institute of
Agriculture and Biology (NIAB) and National Center of
Excellence in Molecular Biology (NCEMB); which have
capacity to provide GM seeds to the farmers in order to
conquer the future growing challenges in agriculture
however government’s well and priority would determine
the direction.

Collectively, biotech benefits offer growers and society
more efficient and higher crop productivity that help
contribute to a more sustainable agriculture and to the
formidable challenge of ensuring global food, feed,
fiber and energy security in the future.

Meanwhile Pakistan need to strengthen its IPRs; Plant
breeders Rights; and amend Seed Act as soon as possible
to attract investment in this sector. Adopting crop
biotechnology can bridge up the gap between the realized
and potential maize yields; however it is vital to know
so far this emerging technology as it has more
advantages than disadvantages.